Tim Scott’s GOP Revival Message

On Wednesday the junior Senator from South Carolina offered the Republican response to Joe Biden’s the-era-of-very-big-government-is-back speech. He laid out what the GOP is against in the Biden agenda, but also what it is for, and the principles behind it. He also called out progressive hypocrisies, such as those who call him “Uncle Tom and the N-word” because he is a black Republican. Underscoring his point, that same night “Uncle Tim” was trending on Twitter until the platform shut it down Thursday.

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But the bulk of his message was about hope. “This should be a joyful springtime for our nation,” he said. American families deserve “better” than what the President is offering—and then he went on to define better:

“Just before COVID, we had the most inclusive economy in my lifetime. The lowest unemployment ever recorded for African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans. The lowest for women in nearly 70 years. Wages were growing faster for the bottom 25% than the top 25%. That happened because Republicans focused on expanding opportunity for all Americans.”

America’s “best future,” he said, “won’t come from Washington schemes.” He called President Biden a “good man,” but went on to say that what we need more than a multi-trillion dollar tax-and-spending plan is “common sense and common ground.” If he has hope in America’s future, it’s in part because he has seen what American opportunity can do for ordinary citizens, taking his own family “from cotton to Congress in one lifetime.”

In sum, Sen. Scott offered an optimistic Republican vision that stresses the dignity of work, individual freedom over government dependence, and belief in the principle of equal opportunity for all to rise.

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